Hello,

As said in the title my macmini heats or overheats. The fan that covers the g4 processor as well as the graphics chip blows hard quite often. However the macmini does not restart or does not stop by itself without warning unexpectedly. I suppose that the thermal paste is original and has therefore never been changed any more than the fan will have been disassembled or cleaned/blown.

I looked on ifixit https://fr.ifixit.com/Tutoriel/Mac+mini+(PowerPC)+Fan+Replacement/267?lang=en , how to disassemble everything but it is difficult for me. I do not have a trowel or equivalent to open it and some parts are very delicate. Ifixit gives an ebay link for one or more replacement fans but unfortunately none are suitable for the powerpc g4 a1103 model. I saw one earlier this week but it was in used condition, having been used, sold by an American for $29. Now it is no longer in the list of all those offered, someone bought it in the meantime. I have already cleaned fans in the past but models ø80 mm or larger not models for laptops or similar. I don't know if it is feasible.

What do you advise me to do? Too bad for me I didn't think to take it to the NASS to have it completely overhauled.

Brumiga

I guess it mainly is just full of dust. The minis are known to be a dust collector. In and out take are next to each other, so even if dust gets out the chance is high it gets sucked in right away again.

All thermal paste in the world and the best fan is not helping, if the cooling air channel and the cooling block itself is blocked.

Just open it up and clean it. Afterwards check if the problem is gone. Swapping the cooling paste is a little more work and probably worth it, if the temperature / fan speed is still up.

Maybe combine the entire cleaning process to upgrade to an SSD (ide to NVMe or M.2), which reduces the internal temperature, gives a ton of system speed, makes the system even more quiet and is available in bigger sizes than 160GB.

There isn't a lot you can do if you're not willing to open it unfortunately, except maybe keep the room you're running it in cold.

The problem is almost certainly, as geit said, dust buildup under the fan, not the fan itself. You probably won't need to disassemble it beyond opening the case. Get a spudger from Amazon.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/iFixit-opening-battery-changes-smartphone/dp/B00NCFIVH4/

Get an air duster, immobilise the fan so its blades can't move, and just blow that old shit out of there. If you don't see much improvement you'll have to take the cooler off and replace the thermal paste, but try without that before.

And I must stress, you MUST immobilise fan blades before applying any compressed air, with the Mini unplugged from the wall. Failure to either so is the number one cause of people having a dead computer after they dust it.